Brazilian helicopters arrive in Colombia for the release of 10 persons held by FARC-EP

02-04-2012 News Footage

Brazilian helicopters arrived in Villavicencio airport with the humanitarian commission for the release of 10 persons held by FARC-EP, some of them for over 14 years now. The International Committee of the Red Cross is facilitating this operation after agreement between the parties involved. Interview with Michael Kramer, deputy head of the ICRC Colombia delegation.

Brazilian helicopters arrived in Villavicencio airport with the humanitarian commission for the release of 10 persons held by FARC-EP, some of them for over 14 years now. The International Committee of the Red Cross is facilitating this operation after agreement between the parties involved. Michael Kramer, deputy head of the ICRC Colombia delegation makes the following statement on Sunday April 1st.

00:00The release operation started yesterday with our departure from Bogota in a presidential plane with members of the Colombianas y Colombianos por la Paz and the ICRC to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira, where we emblematized the two helicopters of the Brazilian army. This morning we headed back with these emblematized helicopters from Sao Gabriel with a stopover in Querari (in the Brazil- Colombian border) to Villavicencio where we will start the operation tomorrow morning.

00:32Tomorrow it is planned that do we leave probably rather early in the morning to prei-dentified zone with Brazilians helicopters, two members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, of wich one is a medical doctor, two members of Colombianos por la Paz and the Brazilian helicopter crew leaving for this zone. In the air Piedad Cordoba will handed the coordinates to the pilots and they will have one or two sites for the release operation where we will receive an unidentified number of people who are still in the hands of Farc-EP.

01:21This is a very important operation because these are members of the public forces, which have been in the hands of the FARC for 12 to 14 years. So for the families to have them back is a huge relief, they had 12 to 14 years of tremendous stress and agony until they can receive back their families members into their homes. But also for ten persons themselves, imagine spending 12 or 14 years of the best part of your live retained in the jungle and not been able to see your family, not been able to have a normal life, this is extremely stressful and extremely tragic. END 02:11